In the past, machinery has been developed for the production of substantially continuous lengths of metal tubing of various wall thicknesses; and in order to facilitate the packaging, transportation and use of such tubing, auxiliary equipment has been designed to sever the substantially continuous tubing into standard lengths. However, certain cut-off mills generate a constriction or "dimple" adjacent the cut ends of the tubing. This defect is particularly pronounced in lighter gauge materials and, in many applications, has been found to be grossly unacceptable.
Dedimpler apparatus has, as a consequence, been developed heretofore for re-sizing the cut ends of the tubing; and in one form of such apparatus, a coacting pair of conical dedimpler plugs or tools is rotatably and convergibly driven to engage and penetrate the open ends of the tube length. This action of the dedimpler plugs forcibly restores the tube to a condition of being cylindrically true. Such dedimpling apparatus ordinarily includes, in addition, a tube-backing pressure roller that is aligned radially with each of the dedimpler tools in order to support the tube against the dedimpler tools and prevent flaring of the cut ends.
Conventional gravity feed arrangements for such dedimpler apparatus have proved to be a bottleneck in modern tube mills and have prevented such equipment from reaching optimum efficiency.
Therefore, an important object of the present invention is to provide a high-speed, precision tube-feeding mechanism for use with dedimpling apparatus.
A more general object of the invention is to provide new and improved dedimpling apparatus which is characterized by maximized output rates.
A further object of the invention is to provide dedimpler apparatus and the like with a workpiece feed mechanism of the walking-beam type.
These and other objects and features of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following disclosure.